Who is Florent Ghisolfi and why are Sunderland hiring him - #onthewhistle - video Dailymotion

Sunderland Echo

Phil Smith reacts to the breaking news that Sunderland could be set to appoint an additional director of football

Transcript

00:00Morning everyone and welcome to a very quick well I guess breaking news special edition of

00:06On The Whistle because we've got some fairly significant developments at Sunderland to talk

00:10about. The club believed to be quite close now to appointing Floron Gisolfi to the off-pitch

00:18operation if you like. So I just wanted to talk a little bit about how this has come about,

00:23who Floron is, what you need to know about him and how it might impact the dynamics of the club

00:27moving forward. Just wanted to start by saying two things really. One, this isn't confirmed yet,

00:32it's not a done deal so it shouldn't be taken that way although it does look quite likely now.

00:37I think the second thing to say is this is clearly a really really prominent appointment. It's going

00:41to have a lot of implications of how Sunderland operate. A lot of the detail on that is something

00:46that we're only going to really learn in time when this is all confirmed and when various people have

00:50spoken and so this is really just kind of dipping our toes in to have a bit of a think about what

00:56this might look like. It's certainly nothing definitive. It's probably one that we'll come

00:59back and talk about at length maybe somewhere down the line if indeed it does go through possibly

01:04next week. But I just thought it would be kind of useful to give a bit of an overview about what

01:09I know so far about this and hopefully that'll be something of interest to you. But as I say

01:15you know this isn't done yet and it's not absolutely definitive how this is all going to shake out.

01:20So hopefully I can give you a little bit of insight but that's kind of the background I think

01:24it's worth remembering. So who is Florent Guy-Sophie? In short he's one of the most highly rated

01:30sporting directors in France and I think while there's still a lot to kind of suss out here

01:36and work out how it's all going to play out this is probably someone's biggest statement of intent

01:41yet I think since winning promotion that they're pretty serious about trying to establish themselves

01:45at the top level over the next few years. So Guy-Sophie has just left AS Roma where he was

01:52sporting director. There's a huge structural change going on there. Fair I think someone

01:57fans will be wondering well why is someone hiring someone who's just left Roma after a year.

02:01Clearly it wasn't sort of didn't have the impact there that he would have liked.

02:05I think there's a few mitigating circumstances here. So Gasophie was appointed last summer

02:09after the owners had appointed Daniel De Rossi obviously a club legend on a permanent deal after

02:15he'd had a successful spell as a temporary manager. A really difficult turbulent season for Roma.

02:22So De Rossi didn't last very long at all. De Rossi was then replaced by Ivan Juric which was a big sort

02:28of style shift. Again that didn't really work out. That also had a lot of implications for some of the

02:33players that Gasophie and the club had signed. The very obvious one being Enzo Le Fay who'd been

02:38bought to play as an attacking eight and Daniel De Rossi's very sort of modern possession

02:43but a possession based style. Ivan Juric very very very different. A lot more about physicality

02:50intensity. Juric didn't last long either. He was gone by the time of the year and Roma then turned back to

02:56Claudio Ranieri. A club legend obviously you know everyone knows what he's done for Roma and of course for Leicester.

03:04Ranieri went on an unbelievable run. Actually led Roma to fifth and they were within minutes of qualifying

03:09for the Champions League which obviously would have been their target for the season. That

03:13has been a big restructure in the aftermath of the season. So Claudio Ranieri has been appointed as an

03:17advisor to the ownership group. They've brought in Gian Piero Gasparini as the head coach. Obviously

03:25Gasparini who's had an absolutely astonishing run of success at Atlanta in recent years. So a really

03:29ambitious appointment from them. And as part of that they've also appointed a new sporting director.

03:34And Gasolfi has departed this week. Really interesting that Roma's statement two or three

03:39days ago made reference to the fact that Gasolfi was leaving to pursue a new professional challenge.

03:46Now at the time we certainly did not know that was Sunderland but it looks increasingly like that's

03:51what it's going to be. So to give you a bit of background about how Gasolfi got at Roma and this

03:55is probably the bit that I think should excite Sunderland fans. So Gasolfi was a player for a long time

04:01in the French leagues. Initially started his post-playing career as an assistant manager.

04:06Moved to Lorient to work as the assistant manager to head coach at the time. Now at that point Magis

04:12Labrice was of course the Lorient B manager before he eventually graduated to take over. So he's someone

04:18who knows Labrice very very well and they'll know and understand each other very well. It's not the reason

04:24he's been appointed by Sunderland but it just gives you a little bit of an indication about

04:27you know some of those relationships. Where Gasolfi really made his name was he was then

04:32appointed sporting director by RC Lons and they went on a period of three years of quite spectacular

04:38success really. So they were in league two at the time. The change manager halfway through the season,

04:43Gasolfi will obviously have been involved as that sporting director, promoted Frank Heiss to

04:49to the role. They then went on to win promotion at the end of that season albeit it was the COVID

04:54curtail season you might remember. But they then had two seventh place finishes in league one in their

04:59first two seasons back at the top level under Hauser which was obviously an absolutely fantastic

05:04achievement. A lot of players who came in and established themselves as key players in that team.

05:10Some of them would go on to be sold for huge profits. The Austrian defender Kevin Danso is probably

05:16a great example of that. Picked up by Lons for a few million euros from Augsburg and obviously went on to sign

05:21for Tottenham for over 20 million pounds last year. So that's kind of where he made his name,

05:28utilising different markets, bringing in players who maybe didn't have huge reputations at the time,

05:33who went on to be really good players at league one level. That then saw him get appointed by Nice.

05:39And again a really fruitful couple of years there. The second season they finished fifth just outside

05:45the Charitans league. He was involved in the appointment of Francesco Farrioli who of course,

05:49as you will remember, was linked to Sunderland quite infamously when Tony Mowbray was in charge.

05:54Again some really significant recruitment successes there and ultimately a period of

05:58sporting success. That was then what attracted him to Roma. And so as I say, while that kind of

06:03appointment didn't really work out for Roma or for him in the end, albeit they finished

06:08fifth and have some decent foundations now. I think you can see why Sunderland are probably looking past

06:13that. They're very much looking. I think it is sort of five years of pretty significant

06:18success at the top tier in France. So the obvious kind of question is really, is why are

06:24Sunderland bringing in another sporting director? Again, we'll have to kind of wait for the full

06:28explanations and discussions on this in time. My strong understanding at this point is this isn't

06:33a replacement for Christian Speakman. I don't think anything needs to be said about, you know,

06:37ultimately while there's been a lot of debate over the years, what Christian Speakman has achieved at

06:41Sunderland and the role he's had in building this squad in rebuilding and strengthening the

06:46fantastic work that had been going on for many years in the academy. You know, we can sort of

06:54understand Speakman's significance and ongoing importance to the club by the fact that,

06:58you know, as some of you may have read on the Sunderland Echo website, he spent the first half of

07:01this week before Fixer released it abroad, meeting agents, meeting potential recruits, doing that work.

07:06So I don't think this is about a replacement. I think it's about a recognition from Sunderland that

07:11they were out of the Premier League for eight years. They were in League One for four years.

07:15The other Premier League clubs have a big advantage over them and they need to keep building their

07:20footballing structures. They need to keep building their infrastructure if they're going to have any

07:24chance of surviving at this level. And I think that's where Gisofi sort of comes into the equation.

07:29I think the belief is that he will bring a wealth of contacts, very obviously, but also a wealth of knowledge

07:35and expertise of the kind of markets that Sunderland are going to have to sort of try and recruit in.

07:40We know that they are really well resourced now because of the Premier League revenues,

07:44because of the Joe Bellingham sale. Having said that, so is every other team in the league.

07:49And so it's going to be, again, on Sunderland to be clever, to try and look in markets where other

07:54clubs, you know, may not have the same level of knowledge, may not have the same level of contacts

07:59and see if, while they're going to be spending some significant summons, if they can unearth some kind

08:03of gems, if you like, who maybe other Premier League clubs don't know as much about and give them that

08:08platform to hopefully go on and grow. So it's a really, really interesting appointment. As I say,

08:13my understanding is it's essentially, you know, Speakman's dream that obviously is vast at the club,

08:19incorporates everything from managing contracts, he ultimately is accountable for the academy operation,

08:25of course, first team recruitment. I think this is about sort of sharing those responsibilities a

08:30little bit about and trying to add some extra value and expertise. Now, obviously only in time,

08:35if this does happen, only in time will we know how those dynamics will play out, whether it'll be a

08:40positive, how it's going to work for the club. There's clearly an element of risk in adding another

08:45very, very senior figure with a lot of responsibility, with a lot of ideas. You never quite know how those

08:50personalities are going to play out. Obviously the fact that Gasolfi will be well known to

08:55Labrisse I can personally only see as a positive, but yeah, it's going to be really interesting.

08:59There's a lot we don't know about this yet and there's a lot that we're going to have to assess

09:03as it plays out and learn. And as I say, hopefully I'll be back with a bit of a longer piece maybe next

09:07week. But I just wanted to give you a bit of insight into who Gasolfi is and why, you know,

09:13some of them seem to be doing this, which on the face of it is a real kind of surprise

09:16move. I do, I have obviously some reservations, not out of sort of negativity, just out of you

09:24never quite know how it's going to work out and interested to learn more about how the

09:27responsibilities are going to be split, who's going to have certain responsibilities for certain

09:32things, because obviously what you don't want to add is any friction or any more, what's the best

09:39way to put it? You don't want to complicate this important recruitment process anymore in such an

09:44important transfer window. But I do think this is a big statement of intent to potentially go and

09:49bring Gasolfi in because he had a lot of interest from across Europe, obviously done some excellent

09:55work in the French top tier in recent years, really highly rated, someone who's got a good track record

10:00of identifying talent. And I do feel like, although we don't know how it's going to play out and we

10:04can't say yet whether it's going to be a success or not, I do feel like this is a bit of a signal from

10:08Sunderland that they're really serious about making a splash at Premier League level and hopefully it can give us

10:13some excitement about the sign-ins that will happen in the next few weeks and months. So I'm going to

10:17leave it there because as I say, I don't want to oversell it. There's still a lot we're learning about

10:21this breaking news. But I really hope that's just given you a little bit of insight and background

10:25into this breaking news. And as ever, thanks for watching. I just wanted to say quickly as well,

10:30thank you so much to everyone who's bought a ticket for the live show next Thursday at the Bridge Hotel

10:35Volts. If we're going to have plenty to talk about, maybe this is something that will come up really

10:40overwhelmed by the response by how many of you are coming down and I'm really excited to see you all

10:44and have a good chat about all things Sunderland. So if you're coming, I'll see you then. If not,

10:49thanks for watching and I'll be back with some more videos soon. Cheers.

Who is Florent Ghisolfi and why are Sunderland hiring him - #onthewhistle

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